Don't tell me that man doesn't belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go—and he'll do plenty well when he gets there.

-Wernher von Braun​

Praxis; a cruiser large enough to hold and house well over two hundred crew members instead held one, all of it's faculties being maintained by the auto-pilot for the time being, only capable of drifting and docking all weapons capabilities, Faster than Light travel and anything useful would require people who knew what they were doing. Nhills Feng was not any of those people. Sure he knew enough to direct the ship to a location, press a few buttons and presto- space travel for dummies.

That however was not enough for him, as much as he hated to admit it to himself he missed having people around, having things to do. It had been a long six months of half-hardheartedly searching for replacements of all those who left, this time however would be different he would attempt to be as professional as possible, not drink himself into oblivion when no one shows up and not fight anyone.

Feng came out of his recently adopted cabins quarters wearing thick, dark brown Jeans and black boots and a black shirt that read "Shopping planet 13 is Burning!" referring to an advertisement for said planet having a "hot sale" on select merchandise many years ago. Clearly deciding to forgo the acting professional part of his internal promise he left the ship and stepped onto the space station "Vantes" orbiting the planet Hieronymus-3, not a particularly good place, a little on the seedy side with criminals from all over the stars hanging around, questionable merchants selling space-snake oil to those willing to believe it won't kill them.

Nhills Feng walked in to the cleanest looking bar in the station called "The Whispering Moonburk" A Moonburk of course being a monstrous bird that even if it could whisper would sound like a tidal wave crashing into a building. Feng pulled up a seat at a table and waited, he had put up several advertisements over the holo-boards in the station and sent out several more to the planet below, waiting was all he could do.
​

Mitra’s tail was stiff with irritation and his ear was twitching uncontrollably. His right hand came up and tried to still it before it distracted him too much. The crowded and noisy bar was making his head ache. He was distracted every time someone came in, as he catalogued it away subconsciously in his mind. But he couldn’t let it get to him, he reminded himself. This was the third ship he had interviewed with, and he needed to get off this space station. The apartment he had rented with the last bit of his credit was damp and he woke up freezing every morning.

But the star map presented to him was wrong. He knew it was wrong, because he had just been in that sector a few months ago. Mitra gritted his teeth, but was unable to stop the honest reply to the captain in front of him. “It’s wrong,” he snapped finally. His hands pressed a button on the pad and the hologram of the stars moved into a sudden close up. “That star has moved about a lightyear towards the center.”

The fennec fox’s grey eyes focused on the rock like creature in front of him. “Do you have any idea of what would happen with the calculations if you were off by that much with a ship that size?” Mitra asked sarcastically. “Your ship would run right into it and burn to a crisp. What kind of idiot buys a map this out of date?” The captain gaped at him for a moment and then roared obviously offended. The rock like hand swipped at the Anthromal, but he had already leaped out of the booth.

“You brat!” the captain cried. “No one could have spotted that. Get out of my sight liar.” Mitra huffed, but ducked out of the way of a second swipe.

“I wouldn’t want to work for someone who is going to cut corners that would get their crew killed anyway!” he growled as he tightened the scarf around his neck. The room was overly heated, but being in that dank apartment had chilled Mitra to the bones. He felt like he’d never get warm again. His eyes swept the room as he debated which crew to try next. He was beginning to feel that he would never get to another ship.

Zakran had been on the station for 12 hours. And for the entire time he was here he was looking for a way off. If the crime wasn't a good enough reason get out then the fact that he was pursued by mercenaries was. He hadn't had any trouble thus far but he kept looking over his shoulder. It helped that security wasn't any better than a bag of dirt. He managed to get his rifle and sidearm through customs for a low bribe of 500 credits. He kept both in a long case. Unfortunately, that was all the money he had left. Now his only way off was with a job or a charity. Charity work was definitely not the way to go here, lest he have his circuitry harvested.

As he walked along he passed the Whispering Moonburk bar. A small holo-boad infront of him displayed an ad for a crew. The ad pointed to the bar next to him. He looked in. His three robotic eyes adjusted as they observed the room. "Huh, that's convenient." He walked inside and found the owner of the ad. One Nhills Feng. Zakran sat across from him and set his gun case next to his(Zakran) chair. "You the guy looking for a crew? Including a pilot?"

Only a few moments after sitting down the bar began to overwhelm Feng. He wasn't the only one who was looking for a crew, he did have several advantages however, for one he wasn't a slaver or a pirate, and he was probably the only one of the potential employers who could actually spell so he had that clear advantage.

A few tables over an anthromal was getting into an argument over a starmap with some one and from the looks of it would be in need of work, Feng knew he would need a navigator. He didn't want to seem desperate so he kept an eye on him just in case he left.

His line of sight was broken when he was approached by a...man? Feng wasn't sure what to call ambiguous robots at first glance, until it spoke.

"A pilot? Oh yeah I'll need one of thoes, I'll be honest I don't know shit about piloting a spacecraft so I'm going to take your word that you can." Feng looked down slightly at the case he had brought with him " And I see you have your own weapon so that's a plus."
Feng sighed a little, he didn't really expect someone to show up and he wasn't good at this in the first place.
"Look, I'm going to assume you're not a terrible per-...uh robot...and won't cause any trouble but if you are just know I'm not a three strikes kinda guy." Feng paused hoping he hadn't come off too strong but quickly dismissed it. He pressed a few buttons on the device on his wrist and it pulled up a small display of Praxis. " This is what you'll be piloting, any questions?"

Zakran listened to his potential boss. "It's alright. I may be a robot but I was created by people." He examined the ships hologram. "Oh man. You got yourself an Amoria class corvette. Are those the original engines? I can definitely fly that." Corvettes were Zakrans favorite type of ships. All the speed, most of the firepower. And this captain seemed reasonable enough, the ship was probably in good condition. He actually hoped to get the job.

A small singe unit, jet like craft was heading towards the space station known as Vantes. Kerinda'o was correcting his measurements to line up correctly with the space stations docking bay. The Xserasdan saw the giant station sitting out in the open area of space. It seemed harsh, with a hint of order to Kerinda'o, and he liked it. As he had come in line he had put his craft, or as he called it the "Verine Jay", into station docking mode, which put him on a steady course towards the station. A holocam call had come up onto the scree, it was a picture of the station's emblem, a knight looking image with a shield in front of it, containing the title of the station. "This is Docking bay 495 of Vantes Space Station, we see you are coming in at a steady speed, when you come through the ship, please keep any weapons inside the ship at all times. Any items you wish to bring such as Credits, and more items that are not meant for violent purposes, may be brought aboard past Security unless stated other wise. Thank you and have a nice time."

"Damn automated holocams, why can they not just speak to me in person" Kerinda'o spoke aloud while grabbing his bio-tech suit and other gear that went along with it, non-weaponry items anyways. Well, except for the EAGs that he had to attach to the bio-tech suit that is. After attaching the EAGs to the suit, he picked up his Electronic credit device, a black device that fit right into the palm of Kerinda'o's hand, as it pulled up a private screen on the device, no holograms. It was meant for his Credits that he transferred over from the Xserasdan Giln. Since the Credit was going to be way more common than a Giln anyways, why not go for it. So he placed it on his shoulder, the device was light, but not light enough to where he would miss it. Also grabbing a necklace that he had gotten from home, it was a complete chain necklace, made of Karadium-Steel, a dense steel with non rusting properties, and also radiation protection properties as well, meaning the necklace could not be affected by radiation. The necklace was a set of tags, in teh shapes of parallelograms, each one containing information about some of his lost allies that he killed that fateful day, and from the enemies as well to remember the race of aliens that caused this, Genomians.

Suddenly, the female A.I. appeared in a green glow from the dashboard of the cockpit, "Hey Kerinda'o, we are about to dock, prepare for landing." Kerinda'o nodded as he pulled his helmet over his head in perfect form and snapped the connectors together, locking in the suits helmet in place completely. The paper glass of the helmet snapped into place, forming a dome-like shape over the face of Kerinda'o. "Thank you Rinai'o, preparing for docking" the Xserasdan stated as he began to sit back in the pilot's seat. The being watched as his ship, within a few moments that is, docked in the Docking Bay.

Rinai'o came up on the glass of Kerinda'o's helmet, her face looked humanoid, but instead of the actual Xserasdan look, she toted less of a homely beings attributes, as she had hair and different looking skin detail for an A.I.. "Get ready big boy this space station is known for some of it's criminal side, wanted numbers are popping up off the charts here" the female teased, even though it was true, "And there are some pretty nice Help Wanted's popping around at some of the bars, Try the Whispering Moonburk, it will be the closest bar to the Docking Bay."

"Understood, coming here was definitely a good thing then. Playing the Lone Greel was getting tiresome after a while" Kerinda'o puffed, as he begun to walk out of the ship, and towards the Security check-in. It wasn't going to be too easy to get past security with this suit on. Then again, when he went to a previous station, there were several aliens that had suits similar to his, well...almost. As he got to the check-in, he stood, and waited until it was his time to go through.

Maya was bored. For the last couple of years, she was growing more and more so. Even during her last forays into the depths of space with a hodgepodge of a crew, she found herself bored. So, she had made plans. The first thing that she did was track down one of her old associates from those forays aboard the Belarus: Nhills Feng. The fetcher had acquired a ship of a sorts, by means he did not explain as he left; the codger carrying a cocky smirk as he did so.

It came to her knowledge, at no great expense of amusement, to find that he was looking for crew to fill his ship.

Not too much longer after her discovering this, was the Belarus docking at the seediest port he could come up with and departed, leaving control of the ship in the hands of the crew that remained. She walked through customs as if she did not have a single care, her armament showcased proudly in their holsters and slings. Perks of being the Founder of Belarus Enterprises. She spent a short while meandering about the station before finally ending up at the Moonburk.

Maya spotted the being in question in a dialogue with another and she smirked to herself. Casually, she walked over towards the bar and settled in one of the chairs and shifting the rifle in its sling behind her back. After ordering the 'Alderaan's Demise' as her choice drink for the evening, she turned in her chair and let her gaze pan around the room...almost as if she were bored. Who knew.

Feng nodded at the robot's enthusiasm, he didn't have time to be picky and even if he did he probably would have chose him anyway. "Great, it's docked in section 4, I'll make sure the dock worker knows to let you on, just make sure you're on the ship in like..." Feng stopped and checked the time "I dunno like eight hours, also I uh...what's your name?" It was becoming more apparent that Feng was not good at this.

While Feng awaited a reply he glanced over slightly and much to his dismay saw a familiar face. He knew that she knew that he was here, he
didn't even see that she saw him but he knew.

Maya pulled out her datapad as her drink was brought to her, taking it in her left hand delicately as she brought it to her lips while holding the pad in her right. She took a tentative sip of the drink before determining that it was, indeed, potent enough to still affect her modified liver enough to get a slight buzz going. She felt Feng's gaze on her and chuckled inwardly. This is why she chose this spot. It wouldn't be fun if he couldn't see her, after all. Still, her gaze remained affixed to the datapad as she brought up her company's stocks and finances. To anyone who could see the numerical values, which would have to be those sitting next to her at the bar, the numbers would be staggeringly high.

For a moment, she contemplated something sinister to preoccupy her mind before shaking it free, her rust-colored hair swaying slightly as if she were chuckling before she stilled. Shifting in her seat and bringing the glass back to her lips to take a larger draw from the drink, she began to flip through the various news sites and item listings on the station. After all, if one is on a seedy station...one browses the seedy wares.

The anthromal’s ears twitched a little when he caught the word ‘corvette’. His eyes swiveled over to the table where a Slalin was sitting with another… was that a sentient robot? His whole body perked up a little at that. He’d never met one before, though he’d heard of them. But more important at the moment, Mitra reminded himself was the holo of the ship on the table.

Any navigator worth his spit had at least a basic knowledge of engines and the different types of ships. Mitra knew enough to be able to tinker around with engines, though not as much as a really qualified engineer did. An Amoria class corvette could house up to two hundred crew members; and required a lot more calculations then a smaller craft would.

The fox made his way over the bar so he could keep an eye on the table. His feet didn’t reach the ground when he sat on the stool, but at least he didn’t look like a child anymore, he thought ruefully. Mitra curled up a little bit as the bartender brought him a whiskey and soda. His eyes were fixed firmly on the holo of the ship as he brought everything he knew about that type to his mind. A small smile reached his snout.

Working on that kind of ship… it made Mitra reverberate with delight; that kind of ship could go anywhere.

The impromptu interwiew was going quite smoothly. In his experience this meant something bad was probably about to happen. "Ah, my names Zakran. Sorry I should have lead with that." Zakran could tell his new employer was a little distracted. His head turned 360 degrees around to see that several odd races were seated near them. Most likely they were responding to the captains ad but there was a possibility they were not here for that. Slow encirclement was a trap he used in his military days and recognized it anywhere. If these were new bounty hunters the company sent after him, well, he didn't stand much of a chance in here. It was time to leave. "So, would you mind telling that worker now? I'm...eager, to began." If he had a normal human face Zakran would be smiling suggestively. As if to say "I don't like it here.". But he didn't so a small twiching of his optic lens would have to convay the message.

Feng absent mindedly stared at Maya out of the corner of his eye while Zakran spoke, he heard what he was saying but inst just so. His gaze was interrupted when the Anthromal from earlier sat down at the bar obstructing his view of Maya. "Uh, yeah sure..." Feng hit a few buttons on his wrist device with a few beeps and boops "Alright you're good to go I'll be on... Eventually." Feng said, obviously distracted again.

"Hey you, kid at the bar! Come here, I got an offer for you." Feng said abruptly, gesturing to the Anthromal from earlier, he hoped to kill two birds with one stone, interview him, and continue to survey Maya.

Never liked role plays that were set in the real-world or an equivalent. I live in our world already, I don't need to live it twice.

Dani had heard the news, that some ship-captain was hiring. The girl figured she might as well sign herself onto a life of adventure, she wanted to get off this planet anyway, and every ship would need an engineer, right? The girl strolled to where the meeting was to take place, a manila folder in one hand detailing her skills, abilities, and experience in one hand, and her bag of clothes and tools in the other. She was dressed nicely, seeing as it was a sort of interview, but comfortably nonetheless.

The captain she was supposed to speak to was immediately obvious, due to his being in conversation with multiple other people. She moved some hair out of her face, then got his attention, "Make sure to put me on that list as well, cap," she said with a friendly smile.

Mitra's ears perked up when he realized that the captain was talking to him. His eyes finally came up from the hologram and he hoped off the stool. He carried the whiskey and soda with him through a sudden group of people. By the time he'd made it to the table he hadn't spilled a drop. But there was another girl by the captain.

He glanced at the the girl and gave a sharp grin of agreement. "Your ship is one of the harder to navigate," he agreed happily. "Especially if you have any of the upgraded faster than light travel. What kind of core do you have? If it's the new Exius-40 that came out, it's the easiest to connect with my star charts makes it ten times easier to keep accurate record." He abruptly stopped talking suddenly emberrased that he'd gone off on a rant. But he shook it off quickly.

"If your looking for a navigator, I've been on a smaller ship the last ten years. But I'd need full authority to update your charts and to make my own," Mitra said firmly. "There's always problems with ones that I just buy."

My my. Wasn't Feng the popular one today? Though, she shouldn't say anything as she had picked up her last crew in such a seedy place much like this one. There were always people looking to scam captains and always even more trying to get off of whatever desolate location they found themselves. She watched each applicant with a predatory gaze, flitting her eyes to the prospective captain with each response. Instead of masking her observations, she merely made it a show for her.

While she awaited each applicant to speak their piece, she continued to flit through the markets and bought seemingly random things, focusing on rare and illegal artifacts that would fit into her personal museum.

Kerinda'o passed inspection at the security gate finally, as it took longer than Kerinda'o had expected just to get through a gate. " I know I don't say this much, but by The Code that was a long damn wait. You are going to have to remind me of that bar again Rinai'o, because I have already forgotten" the Xserasdan whined with boredom. He hated lines, they were one of the things that he could not deal with the most out of any basic situation. Kerinda'o usually felt like they were the bane of his existence when they came around.

"Quit your whining Big" Rinai'o demanded, when she called him Big, that's when she got serious about something. She didn't really like his whining that much, even much so he didn't like that she was given a personality, it made things weird for him. Since Rinai'o was one of those A.I's with a full personality it was hard to keep her under wraps sometimes. Kerinda'o though took this into note a lot of the time by having her go offline during certain times.

Kerinda'o waltzed through the crowds of aliens, being one of the tallest ones kind of made him stand out, and also the easiest one to bump into. He also looked like one of the most suspicious aliens on the station considering the suit and some of the known mechanics on it. Though his A.I. is one in a million as well, plus she can last longer than any other out there...possibly. But time was something that Kerinda'o almost always had on his side, he had no idea why.

As Kerinda'o entered through the Whispering Moonburk's entrance, he noticed several beings gathering around one specific alien. He was reptilian of the sort, and was dressed casually. "Looks like he is giving out some jobs quicker than a snad trail can leave a persons sight" the Xserasdan whispered to himself. He walked forward toward the group, not noticing Maya was too close as he bumped the data pad ouit of her hands with his broad shoulder. Kerinda'o didn't even notice that he did it as he slowly continued walking over.

As beings kept talking Zakran calmed down. He realized none of these people were after him. He got up to give the seat to others the captain was interviewing. He picked his box up and leaned it against the wall. He decided to stick around for a little longer and see who else Feng took on. Still, he kept a weary eye out. He observed the navigator fox. The kid sounded like he knew what he was doing. Then there was the girl. She held a bag of tools so she must have been an engineer. This was a surprisingly good turnout for a mercenary crew. A little too good.

If there was one thing that Maya was all too used to, it was the insensitivity of other races towards human kind. Xserasdans are no different. As the exceedingly tall being so rudely, and blindly, knocked her datapad out of his hand and continued past. With an irritated sigh, she set her drink on the counter and hopped off her perch. Calmly, she reached down to pick up her datapad and pocketed it as she trod after the being. She would say nothing, do nothing, just calmly followed him until she stood behind him and just to his right and gave Feng a look as she crossed her arms. She had a nice little way to make her point and all she needed was the acknowledgement she was waiting for.

Kerinda'o picked up that sigh in his hearing, and turned around to see where it had come from. Blindly not finding the person who made the sigh, he continued over to the table. When he made it to the table, he stood like a quiet giant, over the rest of them for a slight moment before noticing one thing. There was someone near him that had been following him after coming over this way. Kerinda'o turned his head slightly to the right by a few degrees, noticing a cyborg female standing next to him. She had her arms crossed and was staring in a strange way at the reptilian man, as if they had known each other for a while.

"May I ask why you have followed me over here cyborg, if you do not mind to answer my question that is" the Xserasdan had asked his follower. She seemed somewhat upset about something as well, though he had no idea what it was about. Rinai'o appeared out in the open, but chose not to spoke. She actually knew what was going on, since her chip was in Kerinda'o's suit, that's why she chose to remain quiet.

Feng was surprised at how quickly he came over, and more so at how much he knew. "What core...? Full Authority?" Feng had no idea about any of this, Walton had left him with basically nothing for reference, then again he did die so he didn't exactly have time to write down a list of every detail.

"Look kid, you seem to know your shit, I'll give you clearance to get on and we can go over all that later when there aren't fifty other people breathing down my neck." Feng said as he nodded to the several people who had shown up in such aa short amount of time. This was all going much better than he had expected a little too well in fact.

He noticed a large alien, a species he was unfamiliar with bump into Maya as he entered, much to Feng's delight this pissed her off, unfortunately for him and the Alien, he got inline and Maya followed suit, casting a look that would make any man cringe.

Feng desperately didn't want to acknowledge her but had little choice, so he chose to do so in his own way. " Uh yeah. Ma'am I've got a couple applicants ahead of you, so if you could just hang on for a fewwww moments." Feng smiled as much as his face would allow him too and then called for the next person. "Alright, who's next?"

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